sep 2nd, 2012 | Architectuur, Artikelen, Publicaties, Stad
They call it ‘chairbombing’. Just the simple act of putting a chair on the sidewalk and sitting in it is a protest against a 2011 law that forbids people in San Francisco to sit or lie in public space. These chairs, and the initiative, came from Brooklyn-based design collective DoTank, which makes these chairs from old shipping pallets. In San Francisco they pinned a note to them, saying: ,,These are more than places to sit. They are a visual resistance to the privatization of public space.”
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aug 14th, 2012 | Artikelen, Boeken, Design, Landschap, Publicaties, Stad, Water
Water is life – and death. As floods and droughts assume Biblical proportions in many areas in the world, the magnitude of the water issues we face is penetrating our awareness and our political and spatial agenda. Nowhere is that clearer than in the Netherlands, where mastery of the water has always been a condition for survival. If there is one element which is crucial to the Low Lands – for its sheer existence, for its landscape, for its identity – then that is water. The Dutch created land by pushing the water out with dikes and keeping it out with pumps. Now, however, the country that has refashioned its landscape so distinctly in order to keep water out, is letting it back in. For Landscape, the magazine of the British Landscape Institute, I wrote an essay based on my book in collaboration with Maartje van den Heuvel, Sweet&Salt: Water and the Dutch. Read the essay here: Tracy Metz – Designin for water: the sweet & the salt of it – 2012 – Landscape Institute
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aug 1st, 2012 | Architectuur, Artikelen, Design, Publicaties, Stad
The city of Rotterdam asked a group of artists to help rejuvenate the former harbor area of Katendrecht through the use of light. the winner of the competition was Rudolf Teunissen of Daglicht & Vorm. His award-winning design projects a wavy pattern on the street and siewalk and narrow pennants of lights on the facades of the social income housing. In the beginning the inhabitants were wary, but now they’re proud of the way that lighting project ‘Broken Light’ has softened the look and feel of the street. Read my story for Architectural Record here. Read the article…
aug 1st, 2012 | Architectuur, Artikelen, Design, Publicaties, Stad
As part of the rejuvenation of Rotterdam’s old harbor area of Katendrecht, known for its sailors’ bars and whorehouses, the city commissioned a combined art and lighting project. The winner was ‘Broken Light’ by lighting designer Rudolf Teunissen of Daglicht & Vorm. In the August issue of Architectural RecordI describe how his lighting gives the street a tranquility and a dignity it has never before known.
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jun 10th, 2012 | Architectuur, Publicaties, Stad, Video
This short iPhone-movie shows the Eiffel Tower sparkling brightly on the other side of the Seine at midnight. In retrospect it’s amazing to think how controversial Gustave Eiffel’s proposal was for the construction of a tower of cast iron for the World Exhibition of 1889. He compared it to the Egyptian pyramids: ‘My tower will be the tallest edifice ever erected by man. Why would something admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris?’
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mei 6th, 2012 | Architectuur, Artikelen, Fotografie, Publicaties, Stad
The photographer Martin Roemers is having a peak moment. Today the New York Times published a 15-part slide show and an article by himself on his project ‘Metropolis’, an impressive long-running series of photographs of cities of 10 million inhabitants and more. Read the article…
